My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains - Captain Beefheart, Captain Beefheart

Sun Zoom Spark - Captain Beefheart, VanVliet, Don

Clear Spot - Captain Beefheart, VanVliet, Don

Crazy Little Thing - Captain Beefheart, Captain Beefheart

Long Neck Bottles - Captain Beefheart, VanVliet, Don

Her Eyes Are a Blue Million Miles - Captain Beefheart, Captain Beefheart

Big Eyed Beans from Venus - Captain Beefheart, VanVliet, Don

Golden Birdies - Captain Beefheart, Captain Beefheart

In 1972 it probably seemed like the year belonged to a blues-tinged wall-of-sound rock band--maybe Deep Purple, who recorded Made in Japan that year--but from an aesthetic vantage, the blues-rock mantle has to go Captain B... more &raquoeefheart. In 1972 producer Ted Templeman took the controls for a pair of stunning Beefheart diamonds (in the rough of course), The Spotlight Kid and Clear Spot, both collected here in full on one CD. Beefheart's voice sounds rightly inimitable, growly and gruff and lyrically cryptic. For its part, the Magic Band is in top form as well, integrating marimba and an assortment of percussion into the slide guitar forestry. There's a distinct and good reason that the celebrated Beefheart box set of rarities is called Grow Fins: the tune, as it appears on this collection, is a classic terrain-defying testament of love as only Don Van Vliet (Beefheart) could provide, a surreal and funny little tune caught in a skein of rough-hewn music that's stood the test of time splendidly. --Andrew Bartlett&laquo less

Synopsis

Amazon.com essential recording

In 1972 it probably seemed like the year belonged to a blues-tinged wall-of-sound rock band--maybe Deep Purple, who recorded Made in Japan that year--but from an aesthetic vantage, the blues-rock mantle has to go Captain Beefheart. In 1972 producer Ted Templeman took the controls for a pair of stunning Beefheart diamonds (in the rough of course), The Spotlight Kid and Clear Spot, both collected here in full on one CD. Beefheart's voice sounds rightly inimitable, growly and gruff and lyrically cryptic. For its part, the Magic Band is in top form as well, integrating marimba and an assortment of percussion into the slide guitar forestry. There's a distinct and good reason that the celebrated Beefheart box set of rarities is called Grow Fins: the tune, as it appears on this collection, is a classic terrain-defying testament of love as only Don Van Vliet (Beefheart) could provide, a surreal and funny little tune caught in a skein of rough-hewn music that's stood the test of time splendidly. --Andrew Bartlett

CD Reviews

The people of 2000 must rediscover Captain Beefheart!

Steven Vacca | Christiansburg, Virginia USA | 06/12/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am 42 years old and have been a Zappa fan for many years. I've always heard of Beefheart (Willie the Pimp), but never knew much about him. After reading some music reviews I decided to check out Trout Mask Replica. And I thank the heavens for that. For most people, several listenings of Trout are required, but from the very start of Frownland, I was totally blown away by this completely unique, non-conformist, unconventional stuff which I had never ever been exposed to before. Vliet's voice is so cool, and his whole way of looking at things is so refreshing, mesmerizing, and creative. I will always look at things differently from now on because of Don Van Vliet (check out his abstract paintings). People of the next millenium, you must re-discover this one-of-a-kind "no-rules", "free-form", masterfully-produced brand of music. The mold, as with Zappa, was made once and broken. I recently downloaded a 1972 performance of Beefheart and band doing "I'm Gonna Booglarize You Baby" on a TV show in Germany and watched it on RealPlayer. I highly recommend this for the avid Beefheart fan. It was so good. And it shows how good he and his band really were. That's all I have to say. If you want to really open your mind up and experience true "non-commercial" yet extremely creative music, go ahead and start with Trout Mask Replica and then try this CD. And remember, most people (conformists who dare not be different) do not get Captain Beefheart and never will. So ignore their ignorant criticisms, turn on, tune in, and do drop into the best musical experiences you'll ever have."

This is the Place to Start Your Discovery of Don Van Vliet

Randall E. Adams | Los Angeles, CA United States | 11/21/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It's been a lot of years, but I can still remember the disbelief that I felt when listening to each of these two albums when they first came out. I could "get" them, although they were just on the outside edge of my musical comprehension. I was not able to "get" the earlier double album "Trout Mask Replica"--it was just too avant garde.I recommend this fine reissue of Captain Beefheart's two 1972 albums on Warner Bros for an introduction to this man's great music. These records offer a nearly perfect balance of art and accessibility and if you hear these for the first time now, you will not believe how modern they are. It took everyone else a VERY long time to catch up with the Captain's musical ideas. Now you will know where bands like Wall of Voodoo, The Birthday Party and The Fall got their inspiration from."The Spotlight Kid" is the more consistent album,in my opinion. It sprawls with a languid dissonant blues groove. What was originally Side Two of the album (tracks 6 through 10 here) is a relentless string of modern jazz/blues genius. Do you like your blues with marimba? Try keeping track of the rhythym to "Click Clack"--the freshest railroad blues you'll ever hear. In 2002, anybody could cover "There Ain't No Santa Claus on the Evenin' Stage" and sound like they'd just written one of the highlights of their career. Only Don Van Vliet (Beefheart's legal name) could mix sardonic humor and poignancy so delicately.The high points of "Clear Spot" may exceed even the peaks mentioned above, particularly the dissonant swamp rock of the title track and the exciting psychedelic guitar blues opus "Big Eyed Beans from Venus." However, "Clear Spot" also included a few inexplicable and inappropriate attempts to cut "normal records"--"Too Much Time" being the chief culprit. You'll forget it immediately. In all, it's a less consistent effort.Don Van Vliet was and is a genuine genius, a profoundly gifted poet, musician and painter, all of which talents are on display on this release. He and Frank Zappa grew up together in the very unpromising environs of Lancaster, California."

BEEFHEART FOR THE PEOPLE

frnick | savannah, ga. United States | 10/13/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This Captain Beefheart is some of his greatest material. It is also easy for the pedestrian fan to enjoy as well. But beware! You may become a real fan!I started listening to Beefheart at 13 years old when "Safe As Milk" first hit the shelves. I have never been the same since.And now, 36 years later, I am still a big fan. And, every time I listen to a Beefheart album, I hear something new and it seems fresh all over again.His stuff is still better tahn 99 0/0 of what passes for cutting edge today.Buy and listen to these two cds in the same package. It will open your mind.The good Captain will Booglerize you."

My favorite Beefheart

ifutureman | NJ | 08/13/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Either one of these albums alone would be worth the purchase price, but instead this awesome two-fer lets you get two killer Captain Beefheart albums on one disc!

There's little point in trying to describe Captain Beefheart's entire body of work, because he went through so many changes and styles - but these two albums captured him as he straddled the blues (more so on Spotlight Kid) and soul (more so on Clear Spot), adding his own weird stamp on top of it.

You get all the musical devices and "moves" that Beefheart is known for - polyrhythms, strange percussion, jagged guitar lines; and the voice: by turns impossibly deep (I'm Gonna Booglarize you Baby) and impossibly gruff (Clear Spot, Circumstance), but also soft and gentle at times (Too Much Time; My Head Is My Only House ...).

Lyrically, the Captain was in top form here too. From swampy blues vamps to pure goofiness, and of course a generous share of sexual entendre (Low yo-Yo Stuff, White Jam).

HIGHLY RECOMMEND for anyone interested in seeing what this cult legend was all about - and Clear Spot features outstanding production work from none other then Ted Templeman, who in just a few years would man the board for Van Halen - his mainstream rock sensibilities bring a welcome perspective to the bizarre musical ideas.

These albums will never be as "legendary" or "seminal" as Trout Mask Replica, but they are a hell of a lot more accessible, and as a single disc release, i believe this is the best Beefheart CD out there.

"

If you can only have one disc by the Captain.........

Robert S. Douglas | Seattle, WA | 08/28/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

".....then this should be it. Running the full gamut of his idiosyncracies, the Spotlight Kid explores some of the same territory as the indigestible classic, Trout Mask Replica, while Clear Spot is the palatable end of his "commercial" output. Featuring the classic Magic Band line-up of Winged Eel Fingerling, Zoot Horn Rollo, Rockette Morton and Ed Marimba, there is such a wealth of weird and wonderful instrumental and lyrical invention, this music exists in a field of its own, undated and unchallenged in twenty five years. Highlights of the earlier tracks are the bluesy rumble of the opener, "I Wanna Booglerize You, Baby" thro' the majesty of "When It Blows Its Stacks" to the gentle beauty of the instrumental, "Peon." Although fans of Clear Spot love the Captain's dark version of blue-eyed soul, the gems are at the end. That moment when Mr. Zoot Horn Rollo 'hits that long, lunar note and lets it float' in Big Eyed Beans,is one of the defining moments of this writers life in music. Golden Birdies, the closer is a showcase for a wonderfully cryptic lyric with a sombre percussive soundtrack. Don Van Vliet, the Captain, gave up music for painting almost twenty years ago. Somebody else can be the judge of whether that is the art world's gain, but music has sorely missed his brand of uncompromising weirdness and beauty ever since."